Solution - Boot Partition Low Disk Space on SBS 2003

We often meet a lot of SBS 2003 users seeking help to solve the disk space problem since the C: partition is running out of space. It is awful to have the boot partition running out of space. Don’t worry since it is not a wired problem. Many administrators have encountered this problem since the boot partition was set very small when they purchased the server machine. Or it was far from expecting that the space requirement of the boot partition increased dramatically. What shall we do with the boot drive low disk space? Today we are going to solve the problem. Be free to follow the online guide.

Extend boot partition SBS 2003

When low disk space with boot partition sbs server 2003, the quick solution is to resize the boot partition by extending the size. We will show you how to do the trick with a program called Partition Wizard Server. It works on most server OS like Server 2008, 2003, 2000.

  • Firstly, download a free trial of Partition Wizard Server.
  • Run the pwsed-setup.exe to install. It won’t ask you to reboot the server after installation.
  • After installation, run the icon Partition Wizard Server Edition 4.0 DEMO to start.

partition wizard server icon

  • When it runs, you can see the start up screen.

partition wizard server start

Now we want to shrink the data partition to be 100GB and make 33GB unallocated space. The unallocated space will be redistributed to the boot partition.

  • Right click G drive to shrink the data partition to be 100GB. When you right clicking the G drive, it will show options including “Move/Resize”, which is what we need to shrink the data partition to make 33GB unallocated space.

right click G partition to resize

And it will pop up a box where you can drag the partition edge to make unallocated space.

shrin G partition

Then right click partition F and reach the option “Move/Resize”, this time, we will move the whole partition to the right part of the unallocated space.

move partition F

Then it is the same way to move partition E. And when the unallocated space is moved right to the c partition, then you can right click C to “Move/Resize” option to extend c drive with the unallocated space.

resize boot partition

And after we claimed the unallocated space, you can see the present c drive is 43GB.

extend system partition

These are the steps to extend server c drive with Partition Wizard Server. Under the left part of the application, we can see the pending four operations listed.

apply pending operations

Then to apply the changes, you need a full version to make the changes applied.

downloadFree Download Trial

Disk Management Partition Windows SBS 2003

Can disk management extend the boot partition? The answer is quite negative since Windows did not make “disk management” so powerful. All we know about “disk management” is that only basic operations are allowed, such as creating partition, deleting partition, formatting partition, setting active partition, etc. However, if you want to extend SBS 2003 boot partition, this utility is far from enough to do the trick.

Partition Magic/Volume Manager Windows SBS 2003

We want to make it clear to you that do not expect Partition Magic or Volume Manager since they do not support Windows Server 2003. Why? Partition Magic was firstly developed for personal computer users by Powerquest and then was handled to Symantec. Obviously Partition Magic is not for any Windows Server Operating Systems.

Volume Manager does support some Windows Server editions however it can only support Windows Server NT, Server 2000, then it was stopped to upgrade. So Volume Manager does not work on Windows SBS 2003.

Free up disk space in boot partition with free tips

We would like to tell you some free tips to free up the present boot drive without any software.

  • What takes the space? There might be some hidden files, folders and system files.
  • The pagefile is probably taking space. It shall be moved to another partition to free space.
  • Deleting old logs will also make sence to free disk space.

If you think it is troublesome, then you can go directly to the software part to extend boot partition.

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